Sen Slams White House Plotting With Companies On Immigration Action

Alabama U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions continued his criticism of the Obama administration’s efforts to unilaterally enact immigration reform, decrying a fresh report that the White House has recently met with international corporations to help gin up political support for executive amnesty.

What has Sessions fired up is a report from Politico which details recent meetings between the White House and tech companies like Intel, Microsoft and Cisco.

“The Administration has solicited ‘a list of asks for the tech sector’ and ‘provisions for low-skilled workers for industries, like construction,'” wrote Sessions.

This includes “green cards and work authorizations – in order to ‘get them on board’ with the President’s planned executive amnesty,” he continued.

The Politico report notes that the outreach effort, which includes some 20 “listening sessions” with large corporations, is meant to provide political cover for Obama should he unilaterally impose immigration reform, something he reportedly plans to do by the end of the summer.

The corporations have also sought the provision of work visas for spouses of high-tech visa-holders.

Sessions has been vocal of Obama circumventing Congress.

Sessions noted in the Politico report that one lobbyist said that “nothing was off the table” and that if Obama meets all of their demands “we will support him 100 percent.”

These are the same CEOs who help craft the Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill, Sessions wrote, adding that those negotiations were conducted “in secret.”

“Even while they demand more foreign workers, these companies are laying off current employees in droves,” wrote Sessions.

He pointed to Cisco. The tech firm last week announced that it will be laying off 6,000 workers.

He also noted Microsoft’s recent announcement that it would be laying off 18,000 people.

“The increases in foreign workers demanded by corporate lobbyists would be in addition to the Administration’s plan to implement amnesty by executive fiat, providing work permits to 5–6 million illegal immigrants and visa overstays who will be able to take any job in any industry, public or private,” wrote Sessions, citing statistics which show falling wages and lost jobs in the construction and tech industries.

“This Administration is actively working against the interests of the American worker,” his statement reads.

“We have communities throughout America that are barely scraping by,” Sessions continued, while voicing concern that Obama and other Democrats “seem more concerned about the economic demands of large corporations, or the citizens of other countries, than about getting our own citizens back to work into stable jobs that can support a family and uplift a community.”